University of São Paulo - Brazil

USP creates new Pro-rectory to increase policies of inclusion and belonging

(by USP Official Press – Erika Yamamoto | translated by Filipe Albessu Narciso | reviewed by Raissa Costa and Kiara Neves – June 7th 2022)

The new Pro-rectory will encompass existing USP agencies such as the Superintendence of Social Assistance (SAS) and the USP Women’s Office. USP reinforces its commitment of being an open and inclusive space to Brazilian society. Learn more about USP’s new Pro-rectory of Inclusion and Belonging here.

With 102 voting council members in favor, 2 absent and none against, the University Council approved, on May 3rd, the creation of the Pro-rectory of Inclusion and Belonging (PRIP). The new pro-rectory will centralize and coordinate University activities related to affirmative actions and  permanent inclusion, embodying these principles in activities related to teaching, research and academic extension. 

“The principle of belonging should be constructed based on recognizing, in the University and in social life, the importance of differences. USP isn’t detached from the society we live in and the promotion of equity should guide all of the University’s actions,” reinforces president Carlos Gilberto Carlotti Junior.

According to Vice-president Maria Arminda do Nascimento Arruda, “with this new Pro-rectory, we are establishing a more intimate relationship with the dynamics of the contemporary world. When we work in more diverse environments, we not only produce more sensible content and culture, but also advance the discussion of diversity itself. As a public university, we have the obligation of being a vanguard institution in Brazil, it is our challenge and I hope we are up to it”.

Every committee of the University Council — The Committee of Academic Activities, the Committee of Legislation and Resources, and the Committee of Earnings and Estate — had shown favorable opinions towards the creation of the new Pro-rectory of Inclusion and Belonging.

The Pro-rectory of Inclusion and Belonging will come up with actions to promote equality and convergence at the University, as well as foster a culture of respect and appreciation for diversity, on topics such as ethnicity and race, culture, socioeconomics, gender, mental health, disabilities and accessibility, and memory and human rights.

“The creation of this Pro-rectory shows, with a great conviction, the relevance that the University is attributing to the themes of inclusion and belonging. It is an administrative structure that settles these themes in an inexorable perspective, putting them on the same level as teaching, research, and extension. And the actions are aimed at all of USP’s community — students, teachers, and staff members — which makes the challenge even bigger and more original,” explained the new Pro-rector of Inclusion and Belonging, Ana Lúcia Duarte Lanna. 

The PRIP will be structured into five areas: Campus life; Mental health and social well-being; Women, ethnic-social relationships, and diversity; Qualification and professional life; and Human Rights and politics of restoration, remembrance, and justice.

 

Campus life

  • Reinforce cohabitation and integrative activities at the University;
  • Assist students exposed to vulnerable societal conditions;
  • Promote affirmative actions to students, faculty and staff members;
  • Foster actions of remembrance related to the history of USP Halls of Residence (CRUSP), to the University’s child care, and to the University restaurants. 
 Mental health and social well-being

  • Reinforce cohabitation, social well-being, and mental health at the University;
  • Find spaces of conflict and act on the structures that perpetuate suffering;
  • Promote mental health;
  • Strengthening of social bonds and of the feeling of belonging;
  • Create spaces of accommodation and support for those that are suffering;
  • Provide dialogue and guidance for the USP community;
  • Foster the interaction and the development of research on the university hospitals and the units of health and psychology. 
 Women, ethnic-social relationships, and diversity

  • Propose and administrate politics related to diversity, inclusion, antiracism, and antixenophobia at USP;
  • Support the presence and experience of foreign or migrant members of USP community; 
  • Act on confrontation of gender and sexual orientation based violence
  • Promote respect towards equal conditions to all members of the University;
  • Establish actions to better the accessibility standards of the University facilities.
 Qualification and professional life

  • Propose actions that foster the attraction of new talents between the University staff;
  • Continuous data  analysis of quality and satisfaction of careers related to teaching, technical, and administrative and of student qualification;
  • Stimulate debates surrounding legislation on USP careers and their expertises;
  • Elaborate measures that promote ethnic and racial diversity of faculty and staff members;
  • Propose actions that foster belonging;
  • Qualify and integrate the many forms of student support.
 Human Rights and politics of restoration, remembrance, and justice

  • Develop Human Rights related programs and affirmative actions;
  • Acknowledge the historical silencing and rights violation that happened on the University;
  • Foster the interpretation of the University space as a place of remembrance;
  • Engage and enable the fruition of the objectives of the Human Rights Commission.

In the next few months, PRIP will concentrate its efforts on cementing a new structure that will engage with the community and integrate pre-existing actions. The new Pro-rectory will incorporate the Superintendence of Social Assistance (SAS), the Mental Health Office and the Sports Practice Office of the Pro-rectory of Graduation (PRG), the USP Women Office, the Human Rights Office, and the programs USP Legal and USP Diversity of the Pro-rectory of Culture and Extension (PRCEU).

 

Pro-rectory of Inclusion and Belonging

The new pro-rector of Inclusion and Belonging, Ana Lúcia Duarte Lanna, is a professor of the Department of Architecture History and Design Aesthetics at the School of Architecture and Urbanism of São Paulo (FAU). 

Bachelor in Social Sciences at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Ana Lúcia has a masters degree in History at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), and a PhD in Social History at the University of São Paulo. She develops research on themes such as history of cities, cultural heritage, architecture, urban history, and social history.

In addition to her research activities, the new pro-rector has performed many management positions. At USP, she was director of the Cultural Preservation Center (CPC), of the Institute of Brazilian Studies (IEB), and of the School of Architecture and Urbanism of São Paulo (FAU). She was also president of the Council for the Defense of Historical, Archaeological, Artistic and Tourist Heritage of the State of São Paulo (Condephaat). 

The adjunct pro-rector of Inclusion and Belonging, Miriam Debieux Rosa, is a professor of the Department of Clinic Psychology of the Psychology Institute (IP). 

Bachelor in Psychology at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP), where she also earned a Masters and a PhD degree, Miriam’s studies are focused on the sociopolitical dimensions of suffering, trauma clinic, expressions of violence, violation of rights, means of resistance and confrontation used by individuals in vulnerable situations, construction/transformation of contemporary social bonds, imigration and migration, and actions of responsibility and accountability.